We have a few reminders of that pair Victoria and Albert around in Dublin, but in Belfast there used to be a writer, Cathal O'Byrne, who gave off with vehemence about Belfast's "inferiority complex" and its always dearly loving a lord, "a foreign one, of course," and, failing that, a lady. Belfast was the only town in Ireland, he wrote, that had set up in its midst a statue to a German nobleman, "and that statue, a live-sized one adorns the Albert Clock, a memorial erected to the memory of the husband of Queen Victoria." It stands in Albert Square, and there is also Albert Street, Albert Place, and Albert Bridge.
To make room for Victoria street and Albert square, the following were all cleared away: Mary street, Quay lane, Store lane, Weighhouse lane, Forest lane, Back lane, Mitchell's entry and Bluebell entry. Then he goes through the Queens. "We have Queen street, North street, Queen's arcade, Queen's bridge, Queen's quay, Queen's road, Queen's square, Queen Victoria gardens and Queen Victoria street, and, he had almost forgotten, Queen's island. North Queen street was once Carrickfergus road - for obvious reasons. It was the way you went there.
He admits that "in the old days, some well-known localities had rather strange names: Clabber loney; Blackstaff loney; and Buttermilk loney; Tay lane and Lovers' lane; Cripple row; the Gooseberry corner, and Pepper Hill steps . . . Victoria street was Cow lane, the street through which cows were driven to graze at the Point fields . . . North street was Goose lane - same reason."
Arthur was a favourite name with Lords Donegall (yes, two ll's,) so there is Arthur street, Arthur lane and Arthur place. Joy street was called after an ancestor of Henry Joy McCracken, Russell street just may be in memory of The Man From God Knows Where. Marquis street was to honour the Donegall family, but was formerly Ferguson's lane, for the father of Sir Samuel Ferguson (Lament on the Death of Thomas Davis, Cashel of Munster, The Lark in the Clear Air etc) had a tanyard there.
How about Dublin? There are fifteen Victorias - streets, roads, lanes, terraces etc, and thirteen Alberts. Cathal O'Byrne's book is As I Roved Out, 1946, At The Sign of the Three Candles. Most of it is very affectionate pieces about Belfast and district. Fine illustrations by Raymond Piper. Y